Head word of a noun phrase

In English grammar, a head is the key word that determines the nature of a phrase (in contrast to any modifiers or determiners).

For example, in a noun phrase, the head is a noun or pronoun («a tiny sandwich«). In an adjective phrase, the head is an adjective («completely inadequate«). In an adverb phrase, the head is an adverb («quite clearly«).

A head is sometimes called a headword, though this term shouldn’t be confused with the more common use of headword to mean a word placed at the beginning of an entry in a glossary, dictionary, or other reference work.

Also Known As

head word (HW), governor

Examples and Observations

• «Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.»_{(Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca, 1942)}
• «As the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca, I am an influential and respected man.»_{(Sydney Greenstreet as Senor Ferrari in Casablanca, 1942)}
• «The head of the noun phrase a big man is man, and it is the singular form of this item which relates to the co-occurrence of singular verb forms, such as is, walks, etc.; the head of the verb phrase has put is put, and it is this verb which accounts for the use of object and adverbial later in the sentence (e.g. put it there). In phrases such as men and women, either item could be the head.»_{(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2003)}

Testing for Heads

«Noun phrases must contain a head. Most frequently this will be a noun or pronoun, but occasionally it can be an adjective or determiner. The heads of noun phrases can be identified by three tests:

1. They cannot be deleted.

2. They can usually be replaced by a pronoun.

3. They can usually be made plural or singular (this may not be possible with proper names).

Only test 1 holds good for all heads: the results for 2 and 3 depend on the type of head.» _{(Jonathan Hope, Shakespeare’s Grammar. Bloomsbury, 2003)}

Determiners as Heads

«Determiners may be used as heads, as in the following examples:

Some arrived this morning.

I have never seen many.

He gave us two

Like third person pronouns these force us to refer back in the context to see what is being referred to. Some arrived this morning makes us ask ‘Some what?’, just as He arrived this morning makes us ask ‘Who did?’ But there is a difference. He stands in place of a whole noun phrase (e.g. the minister) while some is part of a noun phrase doing duty for the whole (e.g. some applications). . . .

«Most determiners occurring as heads are back-referring [that is, anaphoric]. The examples given above amply illustrate this point. However, they are not all so. This is especially the case with this, that, these, and those. For instance, the sentence Have you seen these before? could be spoken while the speaker is pointing to some newly built houses. He is then not referring ‘back’ to something mentioned, but referring ‘out’ to something outside the text [that is, exophora].»

_{(David J. Young, Introducing English Grammar. Taylor & Francis, 2003)} 

Narrower and Wider Definitions

«There are two main definitions [of head], one narrower and due largely to Bloomfield, the other wider and now more usual, following work by R.S. Jackendoff in the 1970s.

1. In the narrower definition, a phrase p has a head h if h alone can bear any syntactic function that p can bear. E.g. very cold can be replaced by cold in any construction: very cold water or cold water, I feel very cold or I feel cold. Therefore the adjective is its head and, by that token, the whole is an ‘adjective phrase.’

2. In the wider definition, a phrase p has a head h if the presence of h determines the range of syntactic functions that p can bear. E.g. the constructions into which on the table can enter are determined by the presence of a preposition, on. Therefore the preposition is its head and, by that token, it is a ‘prepositional phrase.'»

голова, руководитель, глава, головной, главный, старший, возглавлять, направлять

существительное ↓

прилагательное ↓

глагол ↓

Словосочетания

a quick turn of her head — быстрый поворот её головы  
off the top of my head — первое, что приходит мне в голову  
a full head of greying hair — голова, полная седеющих волос  
a slight tilt of the head — лёгкий наклон головы  
a shapeless hat on his head — бесформенная шляпа на его голове  
a stupefying blow to the head — ошеломляющий удар по голове  
blow on / to the head — удар по голове  
to head a cast — играть главную роль  
twenty head of cattle — двадцать голов рогатого скота  
head for crime — организатор преступления  
heels over head — вверх ногами, вверх тормашками  
to lower one’s head — опустить голову  

Примеры с переводом

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

Фразовые глаголы

head back — вернуться назад, преграждать путь, преграждать
head in — свернуть на боковой путь, сближаться
head off — препятствовать, мешать, преграждать, отвлекать, отражать
head up — давать заголовок, шапку, возглавлять, завиваться

Возможные однокоренные слова

headed  — снабженный заголовком
header  — коллектор, колонтитул, удар головой, шапка, хедер, сборник, водосборник, насадка
heading  — заголовок, рубрика, курс, направление, ведущий
headless  — безголовый, обезглавленный, безмозглый, бессмысленный, лишенный руководства
headship  — руководство, верховенство, руководящее положение
overhead  — накладной, верхний, накладные расходы, над головой, наверху
headily  — стремительно, бурно, неистово, яростно, опрометчиво
headiness  — вспыльчивость, горячность, пьянящий аромат
headward  — направленный вверх, к голове, вверх, по направлению к голове

Формы слова

verb
I/you/we/they: head
he/she/it: heads
ing ф. (present participle): heading
2-я ф. (past tense): headed
3-я ф. (past participle): headed

noun
ед. ч.(singular): head
мн. ч.(plural): heads

1) голова; (by) a head taller на голову выше; from head to foot (или heel), head to foot с головы до пят;

to win by a head sport

а) опередить на голову;

б) с большим трудом добиться победы

2) человек; 5 shillings per head по пяти шиллингов с человека; to count heads сосчитать число присутствующих

3) (pl без измен.) голова скота; fifty head of cattle пятьдесят голов скота

4) глава; руководитель; начальник (учреждения, предприятия); the head of the school директор школы

5) ведущее, руководящее положение; to be at the head of the class быть лучшим учеником в классе

6) что-л., напоминающее по форме голову; а head of cabbage кочан капусты; the head of a flower головка цветка

7) способность; ум; he has a good head for mathematics у него хорошие способности к математике; he has a head on his shoulders у него хорошая голова; two heads are better than one ум хорошо, а два лучше

передняя часть, перед (чего-л.); the head of the procession голова процессии

9) верхняя часть (лестницы, страницы и т. п.);the head of a mountain вершина горы

10) нос (судна); head to sea против волны,

by the head

б) fig. подвыпивший

12) изголовье (постели)

13) исток реки

14) верхушка, верхняя часть, крышка

15) шляпка (гвоздя); головка (булавки); набалдашник (трости)

16) назревшая головка нарыва; to come (или to draw)

to a head

а) назреть (о нарыве);

б) fig. достигнуть критической или решающей стадии

17) перелом, кризис болезни

18) пена; сливки

19) рубрика, отдел, заголовок; the question was treated under several heads этот вопрос рассматривался в нескольких разделах (доклада, статьи и т. п.)

20) лицевая сторона монеты

21) черенок (ножа); обух (топора); боек (молота)

23) archit. замочный камень (свода)

24) constr. верхний брус оконной или дверной коробки

28) прибыль (при литье)

at the head во главе

head of hair шапка, копна волос; а good head of hair густая шевелюра

head over heels вверх тормашками, вверх ногами; to be head over heels in work заработаться

(by) head and shoulders above smb. намного сильнее, на голову выше кого-л.

to give a horse his head отпустить поводья

to give smb. his head дать кому-л. волю

to keep (to lose) one’s head сохранять (терять) спокойствие духа

to keep one’s head above water

а) держаться на поверхности;

б) справляться с трудностями

to lay (или to put) heads together совещаться

to make head продвигаться вперед; to make head against сопротивляться, противиться

to go out of one’s head сойти с ума, рехнуться

off one’s head вне себя; безумный

over head and ears, head over ears по уши

to bring to a head

а) обострять;

б) доводить до конца

Syn:

boss

1) возглавлять; вести; to head the list быть на первом месте

2) озаглавливать

3) направлять(ся), держать курс (for — куда-л.)

4) брать начало (о реке)

5) sport отбивать мяч головой; играть головой

head back

head off

* * *

1 (n) верхняя часть; голова; заведующий; руководитель

2 (v) возглавить; возглавлять; руководить

* * *

1) голова; глава, руководитель 2) возглавлять

* * *

[ hed]
голова; что-либо; человек; наркоман; способности, ум; голова скота; верхняя часть, верхушка, передняя часть, перед, изголовье; нос корабля; нос, крона, головка, кочан, черенок; исток реки; заголовок, рубрика; назревшая головка нарыва; кризис, кризис болезни, перелом болезни; шляпка, шляпка гвоздя; крышка; обух, боек, набалдашник
возглавлять, озаглавливать, служить заглавием; формировать;направлять, направляться, вести; держать курс; завиваться; играть головой, отбивать мяч головой
передний, головной, главный, старший, встречный

* * *

башка

ведущий

возглавить

возглавлять

глава

главенствовать

главный

голова

головка

днище

крона

набалдашник

наконечник

направлять

начальник

озаглавливать

переднее

передний

передняя

председатель

председательница

председательствовать

рога

руководитель

сливки

управленец

человек

шляпка

* * *

1. сущ.
1) а) голова
б) головная боль
2) а) ум, интеллект, умственные способности
б) жизнь
3) а) изображение головы
б) лицевая сторона монеты (с изображением головы)
в) диал. или разг. почтовая марка (с изображением монарха)
4) волосы (на голове)
5) оголовье уздечки
6) рога оленя, косули-самца и др.
7) а) человек
б) (отдельный) человек, брат, нос
в) мн. неизм. голова скота
г)
д) сленг наркоман;
а) наконечник, черенок (ножа), обух (топора), боек (молота) и др.
б) шляпка, головка (булавки), набалдашник (трости)
в)
г)
д) тело кометы (в отличие от хвоста)
е) муз.
ж)
з)
и) днище;
к) архит. замочный камень (свода); устар. капитель колонны
л) строит. верхний брус оконной/дверной коробки
м)
н) веретено (весла, якоря)
о)
п)
9) а)
б) крона (дерева)
10) а) пена (особ. на пиве)
б) сливки (на молоке)
2. прил.
1) главный
2) верхний
3. гл.
1) устар. обезглавливать
2) обрезать ветки, формируя крону, подрезать верхушку
3) а) снабжать верхом, верхушкой, приделывать головку
б) формировать, составлять вершину
4) а) озаглавливать; помещать (обращение, имя и т. п.) в начало страницы
б) начинать, открывать (список, текст и т. п.)
5) формировать колос, колоситься (о зерновых), завиваться
6) преим. амер. брать начало (о реке)
7) возглавлять, руководить, управлять (тж. head up)
возглавлять, лидировать, быть в первых рядах; перен. превосходить
9) направлять (в какую-л. сторону)

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• heed, hed (obsolete)
• ‘ead (UK, eye dialect)

Pronunciation[edit]

• enPR: hĕd, IPA^(key): /ˈhɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput-. The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-, the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word), with irregular pronunciation of /ˈheɪvd/. Doublet of caput, cape, chef and chief.

Noun[edit]

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

1. (countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.

   Be careful when you pet that dog on the head; it may bite.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, page 175:

     Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.

   1. (people) To do with heads.
      1. Mental or emotional aptitude or skill.

         The company is looking for people with good heads for business.

         He has no head for heights.

         It’s all about having a good head on your shoulders.

      2. (figurative, metonymically) Mind; one’s own thoughts.

         This song keeps going through my head.

         • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

           “Anthea hasn’t a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She’s set her heart on that tennis bloke […] whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”

      3. A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.

         • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Thrown Away”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., →OCLC, page 15:

           He found whist, and gymkhanas, and things of that kind (meant to amuse one after office) good; but he took them seriously, too, just as seriously as he took the “head” that followed after drink.

         • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

           «Mornin’, Tom,» he said in a husky voice. Then as the wife left the room: «Got a drop of Scotch about? I’ve a head on me this morning.»

      4. A headdress; a covering for the head.

         a laced head;   a head of hair

      5. (figurative, metonymically) An individual person.

         Admission is three dollars a head.

         • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII, pages 196–197:

           […] but here we are obliged to diſcloſe ſome Maxims, which Publicans hold to be the grand Myſteries of their Trade. […] And, laſtly, if any of their Gueſts call but for little, to make them pay a double Price for every Thing they have ; ſo that the Amount by the Head may be much the ſame.

   2. (animals) To do with heads.
      2. (plural head, measure word for livestock and game) A single animal.

         200 head of cattle and 50 head of horses

         12 head of big cattle and 14 head of branded calves

         at five years of age this head of cattle is worth perhaps $40

         a reduction in the assessment per head of sheep

         they shot 20 head of quail

      3. The population of game.

         we have a heavy head of deer this year

         planting the hedges increased the head of quail and doves

      4. The antlers of a deer.
2. (countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.

   What does it say at the head of the page?

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 10, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, page 243:

     Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn’t wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat’s anchor, as you might say.

   1. The end of a table.
      1. The end of a rectangular table furthest from the entrance; traditionally considered a seat of honor.

         During meetings, the supervisor usually sits at the head of the table.

      2. (billiards) The end of a pool table opposite the end where the balls have been racked.
   2. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine or tool.
      1. The end of a hammer, axe, golf club, or similar implement used for striking other objects.
      2. The end of a nail, screw, bolt, or similar fastener which is opposite the point; usually blunt and relatively wide.

         Hit the nail on the head!

      3. The sharp end of an arrow, spear, or pointer.

         The head of the compass needle is pointing due north.

      4. (lacrosse) The top part of a lacrosse stick that holds the ball.
      5. (music) A drum head, the membrane which is hit to produce sound.

         Tap the head of the drum for this roll.

      6. A machine element which reads or writes electromagnetic signals to or from a storage medium.

         The heads of your tape player need to be cleaned.

      7. (computing) The part of a disk drive responsible for reading and writing data.
      8. (automotive) The cylinder head, a platform above the cylinders in an internal combustion engine, containing the valves and spark plugs.
      9. (machining) A milling head, a part of a milling machine that houses the spindle.
   3. (uncountable, countable) The foam that forms on top of beer or other carbonated beverages.

      Pour me a fresh beer; this one has no head.

      He never learned how to pour a glass of beer so it didn’t have too much head.

   5. (engineering) The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.
   7. (coopering) The end cap of a cask or other barrel.

      Synonym: barrelhead

   8. (geology) The uppermost part of a valley.
   9. (Britain, geology) Deposits near the top of a geological succession.
   10. (journalism) Short for headline.
       • 1968, Earl English, Clarence Hach, Scholastic Journalism (page 166)

         The content of a headline over a news story should be taken from the lead of the story. […] The head should give the same impression as the body of the story.

   11. (medicine) The end of an abscess where pus collects.
   12. (music) The headstock of a guitar.
   13. (nautical) A leading component.
       1. The top edge of a sail.
       2. The bow of a vessel.
   14. (Britain) A headland.
3. (social, countable, metonymically) A leader or expert.
   1. The place of honour, or of command; the most important or foremost position; the front.

      • 1708, Joseph Addison, The present state of the war, and the necessity of an augmentation, consider’d‎^[1], page 33:

        We saw the last Campaign that an Army of Fourscore Thousand of the best Troops in Europe, with the Duke of Marlborough at the Head of them, cou’d do nothing against an Enemy that were too numerous to be assaulted in their Camps, or attack’d in their Strong Holds.

   2. (metonymically) Leader; chief; mastermind.

      I’d like to speak to the head of the department.

      Police arrested the head of the gang in a raid last night.

      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, pages 153-154:

        “I don’t know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there’ll be trouble. It’s bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that ’cause I’m paid for it. What I won’t stand is to have them togs called a livery. […] ”

   3. (metonymically) A headmaster or headmistress.
      • 1992 June 24, Edwina Currie, Diary:

        At 4pm, the phone went. It was The Sun: ‘We hear your daughter’s been expelled for cheating at her school exams…’

        She’d made a remark to a friend at the end of the German exam and had been pulled up for talking.

        As they left the exam room, she muttered that the teacher was a ‘twat’. He heard and flipped—a pretty stupid thing to do, knowing the kids were tired and tense after exams. Instead of dropping it, the teacher complained to the Head and Deb was carpeted.

      I was called into the head’s office to discuss my behaviour.

   4. (music, slang, figurative, metonymically) A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.

      Only true heads know this.

4. A significant or important part.
   1. A beginning or end, a protuberance.
      1. The source of a river; the end of a lake where a river flows into it.

         The expedition followed the river all the way to the head.

      2. A clump of seeds, leaves or flowers; a capitulum.

         Give me a head of lettuce.

         • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

           Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation,  […] . In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

         1. An ear of wheat, barley, or other small cereal.
         2. The leafy top part of a tree.
      3. (anatomy) The rounded part of a bone fitting into a depression in another bone to form a ball-and-socket joint.
      4. (nautical) The toilet of a ship.

         I’ve got to go to the head.

      5. (in the plural) Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.
         • 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary, vol. II, page 1086

           Heads. (Roofing.) Tiles which are laid at the eaves of a house

   2. A component.
      1. (jazz) The principal melody or theme of a piece.
      2. (linguistics) A morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member.
5. Headway; progress.

   We are having a difficult time making head against this wind.

6. Topic; subject.

   We will consider performance issues under the head of future improvements.

7. (only in the singular) Denouement; crisis.

   These isses are going to come to a head today.

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 41:

     Northumberland, thou Ladder wherewithall
     The mounting Bullingbrooke aſcends my Throne,
     The time ſhall not be many houres of age,
     More then it is, ere foule ſinne, gathering head,
     Shall breake into corruption […]

   • 1712 October 18, anonymous letter in The Spectator, edited by Joseph Addison, no. 513, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, volume IV, page 10:

     The indiſpoſition which has long hung upon me, is at laſt grown to ſuch an head, that it muſt quickly make an end of me, or of itſelf.

8. (fluid dynamics) Pressure and energy.
   1. (uncountable, countable) A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.

      Let the engine build up a good head of steam.

      How much head do you have at the Glens Falls feeder dam?

   2. The difference in elevation between two points in a column of fluid, and the resulting pressure of the fluid at the lower point.
   3. More generally, energy in a mass of fluid divided by its weight.
9. (slang, uncountable) Fellatio or cunnilingus; oral sex.

   She gave great head.

10. (slang) The glans penis.
11. (slang, countable) A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.
    • 1936, Lee Duncan, Over The Wall, Dutton

      Then I saw the more advanced narcotic addicts, who shot unbelievable doses of powerful heroin in the main line – the vein of their arms; the hysien users; chloroform sniffers, who belonged to the riff-raff element of the dope chippeys, who mingled freely with others of their kind; canned heat stiffs, paragoric hounds, laudanum fiends, and last but not least, the veronal heads.

    • 1968, Fred Davis; Laura Munoz, “Heads and freaks: patterns and meanings of drug use among hippies”, in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, volume 9, number 2, page 156-64:

      The term, «head,» is, of course, not new with hippies. It has a long history among drug users generally, for whom it signified a regular, experienced user of any illegal drug—e.g., pot «head,» meth «head,» smack (heroin) «head.»

    • 2004, Martin Torgoff, Can’t Find My Way Home […] , Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 177:

      The hutch now looks like a “Turkish bath,” and the heads have their arms around one another, passing the pipe and snapping their fingers as they sing Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears” into the night.

12. (obsolete) Power; armed force.

    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 100:

      My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head:

Usage notes[edit]

• To give something its head is to allow it to run freely. This is used for horses, and, sometimes, figuratively for vehicles.

Quotations[edit]

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:head.

Gallery[edit]

• 

  The human head.

• 

  A flower head.

• 

  Head of a comet.

• 

  Head of the line.

• 

  Arrow and spear heads.

• 

  Head of a hammer.

• 

  Head of a metal spike.

• 

  Head of the hip bone.

• 

  Head of a ship.

• 

  Head of a sail.

• 

  Head of a pressurized cylinder.

• 

  Head of a two-stroke engine.

• 

  Hydraulic head between two points.

• 

  A read-write head.

• 

  Head of a guitar.

• 

  Head of a drum.

Synonyms[edit]

• (part of the body): caput (anatomy); pate, noggin (slang), loaf (slang), nut (slang), noodle (slang), bonce (British slang)
• (mental aptitude or talent): mind
• (mental or emotional control): composure, poise
• (topmost part of anything): top
• (leader): boss, chief, leader
• (headmaster, headmistress): headmaster m, headmistress f, principal (US)
• (toilet of a ship): See Thesaurus:toilet and Thesaurus:bathroom
• (top of a sail):
• (foam on carbonated beverages):
• (fellatio): blowjob, blow job, fellatio, oral sex
• (end of tool used for striking):
• (blunt end of fastener):
• See also Thesaurus:head

Antonyms[edit]

• (topmost part of anything): base, bottom, underside, foot, tail
• (leader): subordinate, underling
• (blunt end of fastener): point, sharp end, tip

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

• → Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)
• Sranan Tongo: ede

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

head (not comparable)

1. Of, relating to, or intended for the head.

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

head (third-person singular simple present heads, present participle heading, simple past and past participle headed)

2. (transitive) To be in command of. (See also head up.)

   Who heads the board of trustees?

   to head an army, an expedition, or a riot

3. (transitive) To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.

   A group of clowns headed the procession.

   The most important items headed the list.

   • 1943 November and December, G. T. Porter, “The Lines Behind the Lines in Burma”, in Railway Magazine, page 325:

     When it arrived, the train was headed by a «K» class 4-6-0 wood-burning locomotive, and a water-tank wagon next to the tender was immediately besieged by women and girls, clad in their picturesque national costume, all with empty kerosene tins for water, a scene which was re-enacted at each stop down the line.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 491:

     The citations are set in smaller font, start on a new indented line and are headed with a date.

4. (transitive) To strike with the head; as in soccer, to head the ball
5. (intransitive) To move in a specified direction.

   We are going to head up North for our holiday.

   Next holiday we will head out West, or head to Chicago.

   Right now I need to head into town to do some shopping.

   I’m fed up working for a boss. I’m going to head out on my own, set up my own business.

   Where does the train head to?

   • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:

     To the left towers the Jungfrau, with the train heading directly towards it.

6. (fishing) To remove the head from a fish.

   The salmon are first headed and then scaled.

7. (intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
   • 1775, James Adair, The History of the American Indians, page 223

     a broad purling river, that heads in the great blue ridge of mountains,

   • 1934, Henry G. Lamond, An Aviary on the Plains, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 156:

     The Templeton heads in the Cloncurry ranges[.]

8. (intransitive) To form a head.

   This kind of cabbage heads early.

   • 1995, Anne Raver, “Gandhi Gardening”, in Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:

     To be honest, this hasn’t been my Garden of Eden year. […] The lettuce turned bitter and bolted. The Green Comet broccoli was good, but my coveted Romanescos never headed up.

9. (transitive) To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head.

   to head a nail

10. (transitive) To cut off the top of; to lop off.

    to head trees

11. (transitive, obsolete) To behead; to decapitate.
    • 1822, Allan Cunningham, «Ezra Peden», in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, v. 1, p. 37.

      I tell thee, man of God, the uncharitableness of the sect to which thou pertainest has thronged the land of punishment as much as those who headed, and hanged, and stabbed, and shot, and tortured.

    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

      If you head, and hang all that offend that way
      but for ten yeare together; you’ll be glad to giue out a
      Commission for more heads

12. To go in front of.

    to head a drove of cattle

    to head a person

13. To get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose.

    The wind headed the ship and made progress difficult.

14. (by extension) To check or restrain.
15. To set on the head.

    to head a cask

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

• ahead
• knucklehead
• railhead
• smackhead

Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English heed, from Old English hēafod- (“main”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubida-, derived from the noun *haubid (“head”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian hööft-, West Frisian haad-, Dutch hoofd-, German Low German höövd-, German haupt-.

Adjective[edit]

head (not comparable)

1. Foremost in rank or importance.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 307:

     At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.

   the head cook

2. Placed at the top or the front.
3. Coming from in front.

   head sea

   head wind

Synonyms[edit]

• (foremost in rank or importance): chief, principal
• (placed at the top or the front): first, top

Antonyms[edit]

• (coming from in front): tail

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

• DHEA, ahed, hade

Estonian[edit]

Adjective[edit]

head

1. inflection of hea:
   1. partitive singular
   2. nominative plural

For me, this example shows a limitation of the concept of head noun.

@KSHuang asks the intelligent question, which of the following is more «grammatical?»

a) «Lives were lost.»
b) «Thousands were lost.»

Both the examples are perfectly grammatical. The only difference is that as a noun phrase «thousands,» playing a pronominal role in «Thousands were lost.», can be thought of as lower status grammatically than the noun «lives.»

What is really going on here is that, in the absence of context, more meaning is carried by a) than by b). In terms of meaning, clearly a) is the better approximation to Thousands of lives were lost.

So my answer is first of all to question the usefulness of the term «head noun.» However, if you are going to use it, I suggest that you need to assess it on the basis of lexical weight or meaning.

In linguistics, the head or nucleus of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic category of that phrase. For example, the head of the noun phrase boiling hot water is the noun (head noun) water. Analogously, the head of a compound is the stem that determines the semantic category of that compound. For example, the head of the compound noun handbag is bag, since a handbag is a bag, not a hand. The other elements of the phrase or compound modify the head, and are therefore the head’s dependents.^[1] Headed phrases and compounds are called endocentric, whereas exocentric («headless») phrases and compounds (if they exist) lack a clear head. Heads are crucial to establishing the direction of branching. Head-initial phrases are right-branching, head-final phrases are left-branching, and head-medial phrases combine left- and right-branching.

Basic examplesEdit

Examine the following expressions:

big red dog

birdsong

The word dog is the head of big red dog since it determines that the phrase is a noun phrase, not an adjective phrase. Because the adjectives big and red modify this head noun, they are its dependents.^[2] Similarly, in the compound noun birdsong, the stem song is the head since it determines the basic meaning of the compound. The stem bird modifies this meaning and is therefore dependent on song. Birdsong is a kind of song, not a kind of bird. Conversely, a songbird is a type of bird since the stem bird is the head in this compound. The heads of phrases can often be identified by way of constituency tests. For instance, substituting a single word in place of the phrase big red dog requires the substitute to be a noun (or pronoun), not an adjective.

Representing headsEdit

TreesEdit

Many theories of syntax represent heads by means of tree structures. These trees tend to be organized in terms of one of two relations: either in terms of the constituency relation of phrase structure grammars or the dependency relation of dependency grammars. Both relations are illustrated with the following trees:^[3]

 

The constituency relation is shown on the left and the dependency relation on the right. The a-trees identify heads by way of category labels, whereas the b-trees use the words themselves as the labels.^[4] The noun stories (N) is the head over the adjective funny (A). In the constituency trees on the left, the noun projects its category status up to the mother node, so that the entire phrase is identified as a noun phrase (NP). In the dependency trees on the right, the noun projects only a single node, whereby this node dominates the one node that the adjective projects, a situation that also identifies the entirety as an NP. The constituency trees are structurally the same as their dependency counterparts, the only difference being that a different convention is used for marking heads and dependents. The conventions illustrated with these trees are just a couple of the various tools that grammarians employ to identify heads and dependents. While other conventions abound, they are usually similar to the ones illustrated here.

More treesEdit

The four trees above show a head-final structure. The following trees illustrate head-final structures further as well as head-initial and head-medial structures. The constituency trees (= a-trees) appear on the left, and dependency trees (= b-trees) on the right. Henceforth the convention is employed where the words appear as the labels on the nodes. The next four trees are additional examples of head-final phrases:

 

The following six trees illustrate head-initial phrases:

 

And the following six trees are examples of head-medial phrases:

 

The head-medial constituency trees here assume a more traditional n-ary branching analysis. Since some prominent phrase structure grammars (e.g. most work in Government and binding theory and the Minimalist Program) take all branching to be binary, these head-medial a-trees may be controversial.

X-bar treesEdit

Trees that are based on the X-bar schema also acknowledge head-initial, head-final, and head-medial phrases, although the depiction of heads is less direct. The standard X-bar schema for English is as follows:

 

This structure is both head-initial and head-final, which makes it head-medial in a sense. It is head-initial insofar as the head X⁰ precedes its complement, but it is head-final insofar as the projection X’ of the head follows its specifier.

Head-initial vs. head-final languagesEdit

Some language typologists classify language syntax according to a head directionality parameter in word order, that is, whether a phrase is head-initial (= right-branching) or head-final (= left-branching), assuming that it has a fixed word order at all. English is more head-initial than head-final, as illustrated with the following dependency tree of the first sentence of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis:

 

The tree shows the extent to which English is primarily a head-initial language. Structure is descending as speech and processing move from left to right. Most dependencies have the head preceding its dependent(s), although there are also head-final dependencies in the tree. For instance, the determiner-noun and adjective-noun dependencies are head-final as well as the subject-verb dependencies. Most other dependencies in English are, however, head-initial as the tree shows. The mixed nature of head-initial and head-final structures is common across languages. In fact purely head-initial or purely head-final languages probably do not exist, although there are some languages that approach purity in this respect, for instance Japanese.

The following tree is of the same sentence from Kafka’s story. The glossing conventions are those established by Lehmann. One can easily see the extent to which Japanese is head-final:

A large majority of head-dependent orderings in Japanese are head-final. This fact is obvious in this tree, since structure is strongly ascending as speech and processing move from left to right. Thus the word order of Japanese is in a sense the opposite of English.

Head-marking vs. dependent-markingEdit

It is also common to classify language morphology according to whether a phrase is head-marking or dependent-marking. A given dependency is head-marking, if something about the dependent influences the form of the head, and a given dependency is dependent-marking, if something about the head influences the form of the dependent.

For instance, in the English possessive case, possessive marking (‘s) appears on the dependent (the possessor), whereas in Hungarian possessive marking appears on the head noun:^[5]

	English:	the man‘s house
	Hungarian:	az ember ház-a (the man house-POSSESSIVE)

Prosodic headEdit

In a prosodic unit, the head is the part that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable. A high head is the stressed syllable that begins the head and is high in pitch, usually higher than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable. For example:

The ^↑bus was late.

A low head is the syllable that begins the head and is low in pitch, usually lower than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable.

The ^↓bus was late.

See alsoEdit

NotesEdit

ReferencesEdit

Category:

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Группа существительного

1.1
Группа существительного (noun phrase) представляет с собой

главную часть

(Head), в роли которой чаще всего выступает существительное, и элементы, которые показывают «определенность» предмета или лица о котором идет речь —

дитерминативы

(Determinatives) – эту роль обычно играют определители или притяжательный падеж существительного.  И кроме того в конструкцию часто входят

определения

(Modifiers), которые обычно с грамматической точки зрения необязательны.

I remember	Determin- ative	Premodi- fication	head	postmodification
	Complementation
Alice’s that all those a the a	fine warm better best good	him Peter wedding girl days story trip trip	with the red hair in the country last year that I once had	than that that I ever had

Под

комплементацией

(Complementation) понимается разновидность определения, стоящего после определяемого слова, наличие которого делает смысл завершенным – т.е. оно «более обязательно» (хотя в тех случаях, когда смысл ясен из контекста его также можно опускать), чем обычные определения.